Executive Summary
Fintech is no longer in its first act of flashy apps and consumer-first design. At FinovateFall 2025 in New York, the conversation shifted decisively. The next phase is defined by industrial enablers — rails, APIs, compliance, and AI — coupled with a parallel movement to humanize finance around purpose, empathy, and life context.
The implications are profound. Banks must rethink procurement priorities. Founders must align technology with trust and meaning. Investors must recalibrate their thesis away from app growth and toward ecosystem infrastructure. What follows are the ten signals I drew from 22 founders on the ground — grouped into three themes that will shape fintech strategy heading into 2026.
Theme I: Industrial Enablers — Building the New Financial Backbone
AI has moved from hype to hygiene
At Appli, I saw AI calculators guiding customers in real time, reducing leakage on deposit pages. At ZorroFi, founders explained how their platform scrubs loan files for fraud before an underwriter ever touches them. Other players like Warrant and Kato went further: one automating compliance review with audit-ready trails, the other replacing outbound servicing calls with regulator-proof voice AI.
The broader market echoes this shift. By mid-2025, 73% of financial institutions had AI in production workflows — up from 66% in January (Morgan Stanley). Mordor Intelligence estimates the AI in fintech market at $30B in 2025, compounding at 22% annually to 2030.
Implication: AI is no longer a differentiator. It is table stakes. The moat lies in embedding it into high-friction workflows where margins, risk, and trust are decided.
Infrastructure is the new king
The applause didn’t go to new consumer apps — it went to those building the rails. Sideko’s code generator cut integration time by 90%, producing production-ready SDKs in seconds. LendAPI and Konduit took a broader approach, enabling banks to launch lending products or fintech partnerships in days instead of quarters.
Investors are following. CB Insights notes Plaid raised $575M in Q2 2025 — the largest fintech deal of the quarter. Allied Market Research projects the Banking-as-a-Service market at $24.6B in 2025, doubling to $60B by 2030.
Implication: Infrastructure is no longer plumbing. It is power. The players who control integration, APIs, and orchestration will dominate ecosystems — not the ones competing for app downloads.
Compliance becomes a product, not overhead
Compliance booths used to sit in the background. This year, they were center stage. Warrant demonstrated an AI agent reviewing marketing materials in real time, leaving behind complete audit trails. Kato automated outbound servicing calls — scripted to be regulator-ready from day one. ZorroFi showed fraud-screened, decision-ready loan files.
The trend is systemic. BCG (May 2025) reports that banks are transforming compliance into “an engine for resilience and growth” with GenAI. Market Data Forecast values the RegTech sector at $18.8B in 2025, heading toward $33.5B by 2029.
Implication: Compliance is no longer overhead. It is a feature. Fintechs that sell compliance as product will outcompete those who treat it as burden.
API speed = revenue speed
Integration friction is the new bottleneck. Sideko’s live demo — spinning out SDKs and integration code from specs in seconds — made this painfully clear. Konduit showed banks how to plug fintechs into their core stack without IT bottlenecks.
This matches the data. Postman’s 2024 State of the API found 74% of teams are now API-first, up from 66% in 2022. Juniper projects open-banking API calls will rise 427% between 2025 and 2029.
Implication: Integration speed is now a revenue driver. For banks, procurement must prioritize time-to-integration over feature sets. For fintechs, API velocity is the growth engine.
Payments: from utility to growth channel
At Vesuvio Pay, I saw text messages transformed into checkout funnels — reframing payments as a sales channel. CardWare showed tokenized payments across wearables, IoT, and even AI agents. Meanwhile, Payfinia and Kashimi focused on fraud-resistant rails and A2A infrastructure.
The Federal Reserve reports FedNow processed 2.13M transactions worth $246B in Q2 2025 — a 400%+ increase in value from Q1. By mid-year, 58% of U.S. banks were live on both RTP and FedNow (PYMNTS).
Implication: Payments are no longer just plumbing. They are front-line growth levers. Leaders must look beyond speed and security to ubiquity — embedding payments into every channel, even those not traditionally financial.
Theme II: Humanized Finance — Embedding Purpose and Empathy
Wealth without legacy silos
Aurem pitched a retirement OS “with no ties to the past.” Moneyplanned blended AI-driven rebalancing with human advisors. Sharely reframed investing itself — donating a slice of returns to vetted nonprofits and providing impact statements. Others like Eko and Tradesk focused on democratizing access to brokerage and investment management.
ICI data shows U.S. retirement assets reached $45.8T in Q2 2025, 34% of household financial wealth. TBRC projects the robo-advisory market at $92B in 2025, scaling to $471B by 2029.
Implication: Tomorrow’s wealth products won’t be siloed. They will be holistic, accessible, and mission-driven — aligning growth with meaning.
Personalization evolves into humanized finance
Gentreo built estate planning around life milestones — births, marriages, losses. Wispok, from Guadalajara, centered its entire brand on one premise: “time is the ultimate currency.” ebankIT made omnichannel banking feel continuous and human.
Accenture’s 2025 Global Banking Study found customers now demand personalized, need-based experiences beyond efficiency. The Financial Brand underscores that seamless CX has become a necessity, not a differentiator.
Implication: The next wave of fintech is not about smarter recommendations. It is about aligning finance to identity, life events, and emotion.
Mission-driven branding as loyalty lever
At Reset, the founders led with their identity as a public benefit corporation. Sharely positioned investors as philanthropists by default. Wispok told a story not of money, but of freedom.
This narrative reflects a market tension. The Investment Company Institute reports ESG mutual funds and ETFs reached $605B AUM in August 2025. Yet the Financial Times noted record ESG outflows in Q1 2025, as investors scrutinized authenticity.
Implication: Mission can be sticky, but only if it’s authentic. For leaders, purpose must move from branding exercise to product architecture.
Theme III: Market Forces — New Entrants, New Arenas
Community banks as innovation labs
Payfinia’s CUSO model, Reset’s embedded wage access, and ebankIT’s omnichannel platform all targeted the same audience: community banks and credit unions.
The adoption curve proves the point. By April 2025, 1,300+ institutions were live on FedNow (Federal Reserve). In Q2, transaction values surged more than 400% quarter-over-quarter.
Implication: Community banks are no longer laggards. They are fertile sandboxes. For fintech founders, they represent fast-moving test beds. For incumbents, they are emerging competitors in agility.
Global fintechs using Finovate as a U.S. launchpad
The show floor was filled with international ambition. Aurem (Abu Dhabi), Mall IQ (Turkey/Middle East), Kashimi (Lithuania), and Wispok (Mexico) all pitched the U.S. as their next frontier.
KPMG’s Pulse of Fintech H1’25 reports the Americas attracted $26.7B — more than half of global fintech investment. Singapore fintechs raised $1.04B in H1 2025, underscoring the cross-border pipelines converging on the U.S.
Implication: The U.S. remains the ultimate prize. Incumbents must expect international challengers — tested abroad, capitalized for entry — to intensify competition.
Leadership Agenda: Three Imperatives for 2026
- Build moats in workflows, not features. AI, compliance, and APIs define competitive edge.
- Treat integration and compliance as front-line differentiators. They are now customer-facing.
- Humanize finance. Align wealth, personalization, and branding with purpose, empathy, and life events.
Acknowledgments
Thank you to Greg Palmer, whose leadership makes FinovateFall the most founder-first stage in fintech.
It was a pleasure reconnecting with my friend Nickolas Belesis.
And above all, gratitude to the founders who shared their vision: Appli, Aurem, Gentreo, LendAPI, Moneyplanned, Payfinia, Sharely, Sideko, Tradesk, Vesuvio Pay, WNSTN, ZorroFi, CardWare, ebankIT, Eko, Kashimi, Kato, Konduit, Mall IQ, Reset, Warrant, Wispok.
Your ambition does not just point to where fintech might go. It shows us what it will become.
